The Potter Pilgrimage

Mecca, Varanasi, the Western Wall, Santiago de Compostela, Trafalgar Square.

What do all these places have in common?

All of these locales are holy sites, the divine destination of devoted pilgrims making a journey to a sacred site, a consecrated location here on earth where they might experience the holy, feel the celestial or experience spiritual companionship on an expedition of spiritual significance – a pilgrimage.

While places like Mecca might make sense, what about Trafalgar Square in London ? What might be the spiritual significance of such a place? This last week Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premiered n Trafalgar Square and there were throngs of pilgrims from all over the world present to witness the culmination of a 10 year journey through eight Potter films.

As the Daily Star reports, there was a young woman who made the journey from British Columbia, Canada to Trafalgar Square to be present for the final Harry Potter film premier. She was spending her whole life savings to guarantee she would be there to experience the moment that the Harry Potter film era began its end. First in line and waiting for a week before the premier the 22 year old Potter fanatic said “Harry Potter has been the biggest part of my life….This is the last film, so I blew my life savings to be here.” Another fan, Robert Connor, who sports a Hogwarts tattoo added that he “travelled for 13 hours and spent $5,000 to be here but it is worth it.”

Even my wife and I understand their passion. While living in rural South Africa we made a five hour drive to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince when it premiered and over the last several years I spent a fair amount of time outside movie theaters and bookstores in the dark of the night to be one of the first to see the newest Potter film or grab the spine of the freshest Harry Potter novel.

There certainly is something magical about Harry Potter, but considering the following vignettes of individual devotion and journey for the sake of Harry Potter premieres, I sense a fair bit of religious devotion as well. While we could debate the religious themes of the series itself, I find it fascinating that so many people, from such varied backgrounds would commit themselves to Potter to the point that their journey would reflect that of a spiritual pilgrimage.

Much like the Hajj or the journey to the Santiago Cathedral, the Harry Potter journey can be considered a pilgrimage in itself. Spanning some 14 years since the first book was released millions of devotees across the world have faithfully read, travelled, watched, waited, hoped and devoted themselves to Harry Potter’s seven-year journey to meet Voldemort in one final battle between good and evil.

Every year millions of religious devotees make their way to shrines and holy sites around the world. Each of these pilgrimages imbibes the individual adherent’s life with spiritual significance and meaning. Colleen Fleming, reflecting on her pilgrimage via the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the Lutheran magazine of Australia (August 2007), shares that her pilgrimage was “an inspirational journey that culminated in the satisfaction and sheer joy of having reached a goal” that filled her heart with awe and led her to praise with gusto in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. As Fleming walks away from the pilgrimage experience she feels that she feels fulfilled and noticed that the journey reflects life itself.

Perhaps more than anything else, pilgrimages bind pilgrims together. As Fleming wrote, there was an “easy companionship, a warmth and a sense of shared identity” that accompanied the pilgrims as they shared their spiritual journey together along the Camino de Compostela. Although many pilgrims begin their journey for various individual reasons they all share the same path and along the way grow together as they experience the journey and reach their common destination as one people.

For many, the Potter series has given their lives joy, escapism, meaning, spiritual guidance and a whole new circle of companions in life. Luis Guilherme, a 22-year-old graduate student from Sao Paolo, Brazil who made the journey to Trafalgar spoke to CTV News and shared, “I don’t know how my life would be without it. I would be less imaginative, for sure, and less adventurous. I would never be here in London.” He also spoke of how because of Harry Potter he “made friends” with people throughout the world. Like a spiritual pilgrim Guilherme found much more than entertainment in the Potter films and committed himself to a physical journey as a sign of his inward journey. Along the way he found companions and together with them experienced the highs and lows of the Potter journey and feels better off as a person because of it.

With its gripping story of life and death, courage and hope in the face of evil and the importance of companionship it is no wonder that in a world filled with doubt, uncertainty and conflict that young men and women across the globe find the Harry Potter saga spiritually satisfying. Devoted to Harry Potter books and films, the author J.K. Rowling and the actors who made the characters of the wizarding world come to life these believers will make the journey anywhere to experience the magic and meaning that the Harry Potter story has given them.

And now as the films come to a close the question is what will happen next? For many the on-line world of Pottermore offers some solace and in a way, is a sort of digital pilgrimage all its own. For others a Potter pilgrimage will lead them to Orlando or other locales where they may not perform the Jamarat or recite the Shahada in Mecca, but they will perform expelliarmus charms and quiz one another on lines from the Harry Potter books and movies as they visit Hogwarts, down butter beer and pick out their very own wand in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new Harry Potter themed park. Certainly, even without the films in theaters there are still shrines for a proper Potter pilgrimage, and I am sure that for years to come people will flock to them as they seek out meaning, companionship and experiential spiritual fulfillment in the story of “the boy who lived.”